APICS plans updates to SCOR framework

Logistics education and training organization APICS will update its Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model with information on fast-changing business trends such as big data, omnichannel, and automation, the group said Tuesday.

Once released later this year, it will become the 12th iteration of SCOR, a framework used by the non-profit group to teach such skills as business processes, performance metrics, and people skills. Currently being developed by a committee of international supply chain practitioner experts, SCOR 12.0 will feature changes to its maturity models, best practices, and terminology, APICS said.

In making the changes, the group collected recommendations from a committee of supply chain experts, and conducting a job task analysis survey completed by over 1,600 professionals. According to APICS, the results identified the increasing importance of four logistics trends:

• sourcing and procurement processes for the SCOR framework
• metadata, digitization, omnichannel, and supply chain maturity model
• data analytics, data acquisition, data science, and predictive analysis as staff skills related to organizational supply chain initiatives, and
• continuing education and improvement of supply chain manager skills and abilities

"The new version of SCOR is incorporating many emerging drivers of supply chain success such as big data, omnichannel, and automation to keep SCOR at the forefront of supply chain," APICS CEO Abe Eshkenazi said in a statement. The updates are also influenced by industry trends in advanced analytics, semantic supply chain, and integrated business planning (IBP), particularly on IBP in the context of sales & operations planning (S&OP), APICS said.

The coming version of SCOR will further define how it interacts with other frameworks, including the Management for Supply Chain (M4SC) framework, APICS said.

SCOR is one of APICS' four well-known certification programs, alongside its Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM), Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), and SCOR Professional (SCOR-P) certifications.